


Pictures of You

by texadian



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kagaminette, Marigami, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Texting, bi girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 17:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29439585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/texadian/pseuds/texadian
Summary: Marinette realizes one night that she has far too little photos of Kagami on her phone, so she decides to remedy the issue.Late night texting, post-Ikari Gozen.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 106





	Pictures of You

**Author's Note:**

> And so the obsession grows.

It was during a family dinner that Marinette discovered she had very few pictures of her friend, Kagami. She had been scrolling through the photos from their last class trip and pointing out each of her new classmates in Lycée when her mother spotted the short-haired girl in the white blazer and blue and red tartan tie.

“Who’s that?” her dad asked, pointing to Kagami in the background.

Her parents kneeled beside her chair on either side, elbows resting against the tabletop.

“You know…” Marinette brushed him off and kept scrolling.

“Actually, hon, we don’t recognize her. Is she new?” her mother asked.

Marinette pulled back in her chair to postulate a quick rebuttal, but no, her parents were right. She had not shown them a picture of Kagami before and by the looks of it, Kagami had never met them.

“She attended the Ladybug and Cat Noir movie premiere…” Marinette tried jogging their memory. “She’s been at multiple events the boulangerie has catered…”

Kagami’s face obviously wasn’t ringing any bells, which was preposterous in itself. How could anyone forget her face? What, with those milk chocolate eyes, that cute little nose, and pink fair lips. Hell, her freckles alone could counteract amnesia.

“That’s Kagami,” Marinette answered.

“Oh, Kagami!” Her dad’s smile widened as he threw his arm around Marinette’s shoulder. 

“She’s cute,” Sabine added in.

“Oh, really, you think? Huh.” Marinette twisted a loose strand of hair around her finger.

Realization dawned on Sabine.

“Is she the one you grab lunch with on Saturdays—"

Marinette nodded.

“And visit all the touristy landmarks with—”

Another nod.

“And study with after school and watch at fencing practice?”

“Adrien is there too,” Marinette blurted. “He goes to fencing practice too, I mean.”

Sabine chuckled.

“Oh, I know, hon.” Sabine met her husband’s eyes behind Marinette’s back and shared a knowing smile. “We’re very aware of your friendship with Adrien.”

Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Don't give each other that look, okay?” Marinette complained. “I told you already that I don’t have that stupid, childish crush on him anymore. We are friends.”

Despite Marinette having drilled those three words into her parents’ heads for months now, she was afraid they weren’t really listening.

“Anyway,” Marinette said, “that’s Kagami. We’re friends—have been for months.”

Sabine stood up at that point and began clearing the table.

“Well I’m glad we finally got to see a picture—if only a very pixelated version—of your friend, Kagami.”

Marinette huffed in her chair and crossed her arms, but it was not her parents she was frustrated with.

When the kitchen had been cleaned and leftovers from dinner wrapped up in the fridge, Marinette’s parents released her to her room for the night. She didn't wait until she was up the stairs and through her ladder hatch before she opened her phone again and scrolled through her photos.

She and Alya loved to take selfies together, so naturally there were dozens of those. Further back, a remnant of her early days crushing on Adrien, were photos from his modeling campaigns and class outings where he’d been captured front and center. Most of the photos were of her various friends posing in outfits and accessories Marinette had made and of the ‘behind the scenes’ shenanigans they got themselves into during these amateur photoshoots.

Based on her phone’s facial recognition though, there were only three photos of Kagami: Kagami frowning in front of a fountain; Kagami and her posing with their juice after they’d lost the Friendship day treasure hunt; and a screenshot Marinette had taken from a news site when Kagami and her mother had attended a dinner for the President of France. She’d looked so charming in her turquoise _furisode._

Marinette closed out the photos app on her phone and brought up her recent messages. Sabine was at the top—a quick message calling her to dinner two hours before and Alix was below that, having sent a screenshot of her latest skating lap time.

Then there was Kagami. Beside the French spelling of her name, Marinette had added the Kanji symbols, カガミ. The unfamiliar swoops of the characters matched the way Marinette’s heart felt as she read over their last string of texts.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**I really enjoyed eating lunch with you yesterday.

 **You  
**It was really good, wasn’t it?

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Uh, yeah. The food was good.  
I really enjoyed your company as well.

 **You  
**Well we always have the most interesting conversations, don’t you think?

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**We do. **  
** But I always enjoy myself when I spend time with you.

 **You  
**Oh, really?  
Me too

Marinette tapped the ‘Message’ space and hovered her fingers over the keyboard. After little deliberation, she typed out a quick message and hit send.

 **You  
**Can you send me some pictures?

Marinette scrunched her face up at the message, whose text bubble now contained the word, ‘delivered’, below it. Maybe she should have clarified her question. Before she could type out another message, the text bubbles scrolled up and a new one appeared.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**What kind of pictures?  
…  
This is a picture.  
[image]

Marinette snorted out a laugh when she saw the image pop up in their text conversation. Kagami had taken a picture of their cultural studies textbook—specifically a zoomed in shot of boy wearing a sombrero with no context, whatsoever.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Was that the kind of picture you needed?

Marinette could picture the unwavering, indifferent expression on Kagami’s face, before the stoic facade would break down to a small grin.

 **You  
** Oh my god. No, I would rather not think about Cultural Studies until tomorrow.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Then what kind of pictures did you need?

If there was ever a time to ask, it was over the phone at night when Marinette felt the most confident. Why did this make her so nervous? Why was it so hard to ask her friend for photos of herself? Maybe because staring at the same three over and over again just wasn’t cutting it.

 **You  
** Pictures of you

There, she did it. Marinette tossed the phone onto the bed in front of her and waited. And waited.

When she was this close to typing up an apology for her awkward and nonsensical behaviour, her screen lit up with an incoming message from Kagami.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Would a picture from the last fencing tournament work?  
[image]

Below the message, an incoming photo loaded. Kagami was wearing a beige lamé over her red fencing uniform. Her face mask was pulled up just above her hairline revealing a swoop of blue tinted, dark hair. In the background, a boy who Marinette assumed was her opponent, looked defeated and withdrawn. Kagami’s expression was hard to read, but Marinette knew it be happy. Her brows were relaxed, and forehead unwrinkled. Though her lips were drawn in a straight line, the edges of her eyes curved up—a major indicator of satisfaction.

Marinette thought hard about her reply. She could easily tell Kagami that her fencing photo would suffice, and the conversation would be over, but Marinette knew she did not want that.

‘It’s working for you’, Marinette typed up, before shaking her head and backspacing hastily.

Instead of sending just a message back, Marinette decided it might be easier if she led by example. She flicked on the light to the right of her bed and opened the camera app on her phone. Immediately, she noticed how messy her hair was.

‘Your hair looks beautiful,’ she remembered Kagami having told her the day they snuck away from the Bourgeois anniversary celebration.

After a few calming breaths, Marinette pulled the red elastics from her hair and set them down beside her bed. She ran her fingers through the loose locks until most of the obvious tangles were free. With her phone at a 45-degree angle from her face, Marinette smiled and snapped the photo. 

**You  
** I was thinking more like this…  
[image]

As she waited for a response, Marinette tried to relax her jaw, but it simply wouldn’t listen. Her teeth made chittering noises against each other that surely weren’t good for her enamel. After ‘typing’ showed up twice below Kagami’s name, then disappeared, finally a response came through.

**Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Someone took my comment to heart

Was she flirting? The thought hit Marinette for the first time that night. Marinette shook her head. It was teasing, but flirting? No. No. Maybe.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Fine. Here. But just so you know, I had to get up from my bed and turn the lights on for this.  
[image]  
[image]  
[image]

Marinette squealed, kicking her feet against the mattress of her bed. Three photos! Kagami had sent her not one, not two, but three photos in a row. Marinette smoothed out the bed sheet in front of her until she was sure there wasn’t a single crease in it. She raised her phone back up and scanned over the photos.

There, staring back at her from the screen, was Kagami in a pair of lounge shorts and an oversized T-shirt. Her first pose had her leaning back against the headboard of her bed with a smile mirroring Marinette’s own selfie. In the second and third, she was sitting up, cross-legged, with the phone straight ahead of her, sticking her tongue out in the first and scrunching her face up in feigned disdain in the second.

 **You  
** Oh, my. I can't believe you had to stand up AND turn on the lights.

Marinette could tease back. Teasing was neutral territory.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Only for you.

And there it was, neutral territory no more. They had crossed enemy lines. It sent Marinette spiraling into a perpetual loop between hope and practicality. She needed to know if this was just wishful thinking or something more.

 **You  
** Thank you. I needed those.

There was something peculiar about the word ‘needed’. It implied a necessity beyond want. Though Marinette would not perish without those three nighttime photos, she could not envision an alternate reality where Kagami had not sent them.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Can I ask why?

Marinette didn't know the true answer to that herself. At least not right now. 

**You  
** I only had three photos of you in my phone.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**What about the fencing one after my bout?

Kagami had her there.

 **You  
** While I am always happy to celebrate your wins, your face was partially obscured in that one.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Among other things I assume?

Marinette felt a stir low in her belly and rolled onto her stomach to quell it. She tucked her hair behind her ears and held her head in her hands. The screen of her phone lied face up below her, staring her down. If only she knew what Kagami was thinking—then she’d know what to say and wouldn’t fuck this up.

 **You  
** Among other things, yes.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Do you always wear a tank top to bed?

Marinette looked down at her black tank top and pajama pants.

 **You  
** When it’s warm. Why?

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Just cataloguing the information.

 **You  
** What about you? Do you always wear a T-shirt and shorts?

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Only when it’s chilly in my room.

Marinette blanched. The girl was pure evil.

Downstairs, she heard her parents getting up from their squeaky couch to close the windows in the main room. It was late—almost 10:30 at night. How long had they’d been texting back and forth? Marinette flicked her light off in case they felt the need to check on her.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Is someone sleepy?

 **You  
** No  
[image]

Marinette sent a photo of herself lying down in bed, closing her eyes. The light from her phone screen cast soft lines in the features of her face. The whole photo had a blue hue.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**I was right. Already asleep. I guess I’m too late to say goodnight.

Marinette felt tempted to say nothing or simply send another of her ‘asleep’, but she really wanted a true goodnight from her late-night confidant. She opened her eyes this time, and with her head on the pillow, stared soulfully at the camera lens.

 **You  
** [image]

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Would it be too forward to request more late-night selfies in the future?

 **You  
**No. **  
** I would be sorry if I didn’t.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**[image]

The lights were off in Kagami’s room as well. She was lying on her side in bed with her head propped up in her hand and her elbow jabbing into the side of the pillow. Her other hand was curled in a relaxed fist, covering her lips. Marinette could have stared at the photo for ages.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**I don't want to say goodnight, but I am afraid I will fall asleep on you if I don’t.

Marinette smiled.

 **You  
**If you must…

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Goodnight, Marinette.

 **You  
**Goodnight, Kagami.

When Marinette awoke the next morning, she spent the first few minutes rubbing her eyes and turning over, hoping the alarm was just a figment of her imagination. When it rang again, she grabbed her phone from beside her bed and turned it off.

Even though her conversation from the night before was still fresh on her mind, she opened the messaging app back up and flicked through the photos. Unwelcomed doubt filled her mind. Would Kagami regret sending her the photos? Had night given them both some unworldly brazen ability, only to be usurped when morning came?

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Good morning, Marinette.

Maybe it wasn’t some unworldly ability after all.

 **You  
**Good morning, Kagami.

 **Kagami -** **カガミ  
**Please tell me you're already dressed and ready for school.

 **You**  
You know I could never lie to you. ****  
[image]

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you Kellendros on Discord for beta-reading this work.


End file.
